Preparation and Analysis of Sheath-Core Intelligent Thermo-Regulating Fiber

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Textile Engineering
• Polymer Science

Background:

• Conventional clothing fibers lack active thermal regulation capabilities.
• Development of smart textiles with temperature-adjusting properties is an ongoing research area.
• Phase-change materials (PCMs) offer potential for passive thermal management in textiles.

Purpose of the Study:

• To create a skin-core composite fiber with bidirectional temperature adjustment.
• To investigate the effect of paraffin content on the thermal properties of the composite fiber.
• To evaluate the temperature-regulating performance of the developed fiber compared to ordinary polypropylene fibers.

Main Methods:

• Composite melt spinning was employed to fabricate polypropylene/paraffin core-sheath fibers.
• Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) was used to quantify phase-change latent heat and enthalpy.
• Infrared thermal imaging monitored temperature changes of fiber bundles under controlled heating and cooling.

Main Results:

• Increased paraffin content in the fiber correlated with higher phase-change latent heat.
• Optimal paraffin injection (1.5 mL/min) yielded melting and crystallization enthalpies of 65.93 J/g and 66.15 J/g.
• Intelligent fibers exhibited slower heating (max diff 8.0 °C) and cooling (max diff 6.7 °C) compared to standard polypropylene fibers.

Conclusions:

• The developed skin-core composite fiber demonstrates effective bidirectional temperature adjustment.
• The fiber's thermal regulation capability is directly linked to its paraffin content and latent heat.
• This technology holds promise for creating advanced functional textiles with enhanced thermal comfort.